Document transporting

ABSTRACT

A cantilevered document-processing station is disposed over a document transport table. A document of any width is selectively transported under the cantilevered station for processing information with respect to the document. Canted drive rollers in the document-processing station move the document through the station and against a guide rail. A plurality of resilient document-holding fingers in the station have a dark color and a slit for improving the detecting resolution of the processing station in reading marks on the document.

United States Patent 1111 3,560,7-1 7 [72] Inventor Harvey G. Patterson References Cited Phoenix, Ariz. UNITED STATES PATENTS PP 682042 3.141.958 7/1964 Stickel et al. 235/61.115 1 Filed 3.373.264 3/1968 Damerau 235/6l.1 1 1 l cfotorola. lnc. Primary ExaminerThomas A. Robmson g Franklin Park [IL Attorney-MueIler & Aichele a corporation of Illinois ABSTRACT: A cantilevered document-processing station is DOCPMENT TRANSWRTING disposed over a document transport table. A document of any 8 Chums 5 Drawmg width is selectively transported under the cantilevered station [52] US. Cl 235/6l.l1, for processing information with respect to the document. 250/219 Canted drive rollers in the document-processing station move [5 lnt. the docu t th gh h Station and against a guide rail. A (306k 17/00 plurality of resilient document-holding fingers in the station [50] Field of Search ..235/61. 1 15, have a dark olor and a slit for improving the detecting resolu- ,1 15PM, 61.11. .1 l l, .l 13; 250/219ID, lDC; tion of the processing station in reading marks on the docu- 27l/(lnquired) ment.

/23 I I I I I. I j 1 1 1.11231: 24 32 1| |Z1' 1 [IL-LI." l2

22 g g g PATENTEU rm 2m] F/GZ INVENTOR. Harvey 6. Patterson BY 777%, W, q UEau/nm DOCUMENT TRANSPORTING BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to document-transporting machines and especially those machines for transporting documents with marks to be machine sensed, such as marks or holes on tabulating cards.

Many tabulating-card and other document-type processing machines are well known in the trade. Many of such machines require elaborate .devices to guide the document being processed and to prevent the document from kinking or otherwise causing a malfunction, such as jamming, in the machine. Reliability of operation also has been a continuing problem.

Documents being processed in such machines include the well-known punched cards which have apertures or no apertures to indicate information, cards or documents with printed marks or no marks thereon corresponding to holes or no holes in a punched card, magnetic ink marks on a document, and other equivalent indicia.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a document-processing machine of low cost and high reliability.

It is another object of this invention to provide a documentprocessing machine capable of handling a document of an arbitrary width.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a document-processing machine with a single guide rail and of low cost construction.

A feature of the present invention is the provision of a cantilevered document-processing station disposed over a document transport table.

It is another feature that the document transport table be completely flat, with a guide rail only'along one edge of the table and extending under the document-processing station.

It is another feature of this invention to include canted rollers designed to move the document along the documentprocessing station and against the guide rail.

It is another feature of this invention to have a plurality of resilient fingers in the document-processing station which press the document against the transport table. There is one finger disposed between each sensing element and over each column of marks to be sensed. The finger which is optically blackened approximately represents the field of view of the sensing element, etc. Such finger has an aperture of predetermined size for accenting the effect of a mark of the document on the sensing element.

Apparatus embodying the present invention includes a flat document transport table having a document guide rail extending the entire length of one edge of the table. The other edges have no guides. A document-processing station, such as a read station, is cantilevered adjacent the guide means to extend over a portion of the document transport table. The document to be processed is placed against the guide rail and then moved under the document-processing station. Upon engaging the drive rollers, the document automatically moves through the processing station. The guide rollers may be canted to ensure that the document is forced against the guide rail. Such canting is not greater than 3 for a pagetype document and not greater than for a tabulating card of usual weight.

In a reading or sensing operation, to increase the resolution of the marks on the document being sensed, the plurality of fingers beneath the document-processing head each has a blackened portion with an aperture therein. As the marks move under the finger, the contrast of the marks as seen through the aperture is greatly increased for improving the reliability of the document sensing.

When using a canted roller, the transport table may have a slight recess directly under the roller with the spacing between the bottom of the roller and the tabletop being less than the thickness of the document being processed. In this manner, good frictional engagement is provided between the document through document-processing and the drive roller yet resiliency of the document limits the frictional grabbing such that the document is hot forced over the guide rail.

' THE DRAWING FIG. I is a perspective view of an apparatus illustrating the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a'diagram'matic plan view of the FIG. I apparatus with a cutaway portion showing the arrangement of the document-processing station.

FIG. 3 is a partial diagrammatic sectional view of the FIG. 2 apparatus showing the canted drive roller relationship to the document transport table. I

FIG. 4 is a partial diagrammatic plan view of the relationship of an apertured resilient document-holding finger with respect to the sensing means for improving resolution of the sensing operation.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of a second arrangement of fingers for improving resolution.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, like numbers indicate like parts and structural features in the various views. A card page reader or sensing device is utilized to illustrate the present in vention. The reader has a document transporting table 10 with a flat upper surface. A single document guide rail ll is disposed along one edge of the table and extends under and station 12. Documentprocessing station 12 may include an optical sensing unit of known design. Station 12 is cantilevered over table 10 from behind and adjacent guide rail 11, as best seen in FIG. I. Housing 13, covering station 12, is pivoted on the reader case 14 as at 15 for rotation to the dotted line position 16 to expose the operating equipment in the processing station and operator adjustment controls (not shown) for other portions of the card readerl A reader-control console 17 is integrally formed with housing 14 and includes a plurality of control switches for perfonning actuating functions such as rotation of drive rollers, actuating the processing station, and the like. Such functions may be automatic in that signals from a computer (not shown), and the like, may be used to actuate such performance.

In utilizing the FIG. 1 illustrated reader, a document, such as tabulating card 18, is placed on table 10 and against guide rail 11. Card 18 is then moved in a first direction such that leading edge 19 is within document-processing station 12. Card 18 then engages first drive roller 20' (FIG. 2). Rotating drive roller 20 then moves document 18 through the' processing station 12. Tandem drive roller 21 rotates at the same speed as roller 20 and ensures that document l8 smoothly passes through station 12. Card 18 may be any width and still be transported through processing station 12. For example, dotted line l8A indicates an arbitrarily wider document which is usable with the present invention. In such wider documents, only those marks passing through station '12 will be machine read; the remainder of the document may be used for recording visually read data. When a sufficiently rigid document is provided, the document edge away from guide 1] may extend over the edge 22 of table 10 and still be successfully transported by the illustrated apparatus.

Referring more particularly now to FIG. 2, rollers 20 and 21 are shown as being canted, that is, they are disposed at an angle with respect to the direction of travel of card 18. This angle is greatly exaggerated in the FIG. 2 drawing to illustrate the principles involved. When using a page type of document such as heavy bond paper, it is believed that the canted angle of rollers 20 should not be greater than 3, while with tabulating card 18 it is believed that the angle should not be greater than 5. While documents of different weights are transportable by rollers disposed at a given angle, generally the heavier the document, the greater the permissible canted angle.

Such canted rollers practically eliminate the need for regulating the width of the document being processed. The drive for the document is essentially along the one edge adjacent card guide 11 with the outer edge of the document being completely independent of the drive mechanism. For documents such as tabulating cards, the rollers may be spaced about one-half inch from guide rail llll. For narrower documents, such as teleprinter tape, the rollers must be closer to rail Ill to prevent skewing the document. Documents wider than tabulating cards are transportable with the /2- inch spac- The canted drive rollers 20 and 21 move the document 118 to the left, as viewed in FIG. 2, and against guide Ill. If the canting of rollers 20 and 2ll is too great, the document l8 has a tendency to move over the guide. While rollers 20, 21 may be disposed such as to be parallel to the direction of travel of document 18, the canting will ensure alignment of the data rows 23 through 26, for example, on document 18, with the read stations immediately above fingers 27, 28, 29, and 31) in the document-processing station 12. Fingers 27 through 341 are formed of resilient material and press against document 118 to hold it firmly against table 110 to ensure a constant distance between the document and the sensing elements in the readout head assembly 31. Head assembly 311 may be constructed in any manner and may utilize photodiodes (and the like) with 9 light source in the assembly (not shown) which shines light onto document 18. The reflected light is then sensed by the photodiodes for indicating the presence or absence of data .marks on the card 18.

When using canted rollers 20 and 211, slight depressions 32 should be provided in table M1. As best seen in FIG. 3, canted drive roller 20 is disposed directly above depression 32. Depression 32 is formed to match that of the drive wheel such that when document 118 is passed under drive wheel 20 it is slightly bent into depression 32 to control the frictional en? gagement between document 118 and drive roller 20. Without depression 32, the drive roller 20 could force document 118 over guide means 11. Depression 32 is longer than the thickness of roller 20 for permitting fiexure of card 1l8 but does not extend across table 110 for preventing card 18 buckling in the depression.

Table may be formed of a plurality of parts. For example, the portion immediately below document-processing station 12 may be separate from the portion outside of such station. This portion of table 10 is indicated in FIG. 3 as insert 110A. The junction between table 110 and insert IllIlA is beveled as at 33 such that no comers extend above the upper surface for card 18 to catch upon.

Referring next to FIG. 4, the principles involved in improved sensing of data marks on document 118 are illustrated. Fingers 27, 28 are shown directly above data rows 23, 241. Photodiodes 35 are schematically shown as receiving light from a field of vision indicated by dotted circles 36 above the fingers. Finger 27 has low reflective portion 37 such that the reflected light from finger 27 to one of photodiodes 35 is minimized. When no data mark 38 is present under 27, aperture 39 permits a predetermined amount of light reflected from document 18 to reach the one diode 35. When mark 38 moves under aperture 39, the reflected light is greatly decreased to provide improved reliability by increasing resolution in sensing the presence or absence of a data mark.

Referring next to FIG. 5, there is shown in diagrammatic form an alternate technique for improving resolution of the sensing operation. Three mark-sense channels 50, 511, and 52 are disposed intermediate three spaced-apart and optically blackened fingers 53, 54, and 55. The plurality of marks 57 to be sensed are intermediate the three fingers. The fields of vision of the sensing photodiodes are indicated by the dotted circles. The improvement in resolution is somewhat less than that afforded by the configuration shown in FIG. 41. This latter arrangement is suitable when the photodiodes have a more limited field of sensing than those photodiodes used with the FIG. 4 arrangement.

Iclaim:

l. A document processing machine comprising:

a document supporting table having an upper flat surface;

a guide rail extending along one edge of said table for guiding documents being transported upon the surface of said table;

document-processing means disposed over the document table and supported from said one edge of said table over said guide rail and extending only partially over said document table, said document-processing means including resilient finger means extending downwardly therefrom to engage the upper surface of said table, said resilient finger means engaging said upper surface to permit the document being processed to slide therebetween whereby said document is urged against said upper surface;

said resilient finger means including at least one resilient finger havinga low light reflective portion, said portion containing an aperture through which data marks on documents are optically sensed;

sensing means contained in said documentprocessing means for sensing data marks through the apcrtured finger on documents being processed; and

drive means adjacent said document-processing means for frictionally driving documents on the surface of said table, said drive means being affixed to said table proximate to the document-processing means, said drive means including drive rollers only adjacent said guide rail.

2. The invention of claim I wherein: said drive rollers rotate at a small angle with respect to said guide rail.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein said angle is not greater than 5.

4. The invention of claim 2 wherein said angle is not greater than 3.

5. The invention of claim 3 wherein said drive rollers are about one-half inch from said guide rail.

6. The invention of claim ll wherein said documentprocessing means includes a plurality of sensing means each having a predetermined field of sensing, said documentprocessing means including: a plurality of optically blackened resilient fingers extending downward to said table for holding a document thereagainst and each finger disposed between adjacent ones of said sensing means for limiting reflected light with the respective fields of sensing.

'7. A document transport means comprising in combination:

a document table having an upper flat surface;

a guide rail extending substantially the entire length along one edge of said document table;

friction rollers rotatably disposed over said document table for rotation to move documents in a first direction parallel to said guide rail and having a spacing from the table slightly less than the thickness of any document to be processed, said table having a slight recess immediately under each of said rollers with the spacing between the top of the document table and the bottom of the roller being substantially less than the document thickness, with each recess being only slightly longer than the thickness of said rollers; and

said rollers being disposed at a small angle with respect to the direction of travel of any document such that when the rollers rotate any document is forced against said guide rail as well as along said first direction.

8. The invention of, claim 7 further including documentprocessing means mounted adjacent said guide rail means and cantilevered over said tabletop such that a document of any width may be moved thereunder in said first direction without physical obstruction. 

1. A document processing machine comprising: a document supporting table having an upper flat surface; a guide rail extending along one edge of said table for guiding documents being transported upon the surface of said table; document-processing means disposed over the document table and supported from said one edge of said table over said guide rail and extending only partially over said document table, said document-processing means including resilient finger means extending downwardly therefrom to engage the upper surface of said table, said resilient finger means engaging said upper surface to permit the document being processed to slide therebetween whereby said document is urged against said upper surface; said resilient finger means including at least one resilient finger having a low light reflective portion, said portion containing an aperture through which data marks on documents are optically sensed; sensing means contained in said document-processing means for sensing data marks through the apertured finger on documents being processed; and drive means adjacent said document-processing means for frictionally driving documents on the surface of said table, said drive means being affixed to said table proximate to the document-processing means, said drive means including drive rollers only adjacent said guide rail.
 2. The invention of claim 1 wherein: said drive rollers rotate at a small angle with respect to said guide rail.
 3. The invention of claim 2 wherein said angle is not greater than 5*.
 4. The invention of claim 2 wherein said angle is not greater than 3*.
 5. The invention of claim 3 wherein said drive rollers are about one-half inch from said guide rail.
 6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said document-processing means includes a plurality of sensing means each having a predetermined field of sensing, said document-processing means including: a plurality of optically blackened resilient fingers extending downward to said table for holding a document thereagainst and each finger disposed between adjacent ones of said sensing means for limiting reflected light with the respective fields of sensing.
 7. A document transport means comprising in combination: a document table having an upper flat surface; a guide rail extending substantially the entire length along one edge of said document table; friction rollers rotatably disposed over said document table for rotation to move documents in a first direction parallel to said guide rail and having a spacing from the table slightly less than the thickness of any document to be processed, said table having a slight recess immediately under each of said rollers with the spacing between the top of the document table and the bottom of the roller being substantially less than the document thickness, with each recess being only slightly longer than the thickness of said rollers; and said rollers being disposed at a small angle with respect to the direction of travel of any document such that when the rollers rotate any document is forced against said guide rail as well as along said first direction.
 8. The invention of claim 7 further including document-processing means mounted adjacent said guide rail means and cantilevered over said tabletop such that a document of any width may be moved thereunder in said first direction without physical obstruction. 